The part of the club that is open right now.
- A growing set of ColecoVision games each has its own
permanent high score board - 133 of them so far. A board never closes. Whoever has the highest approved
score holds that record until somebody beats it.
- Which games have a board.
Every original ColecoVision release has one - the whole Legacy
catalogue, whoever published it. In time that may widen further,
to games the archive documents beyond the original releases.
If a game you want is not on the list yet,
say so -
that is what decides what gets added.
- Some games cannot be played here, and that changes nothing
about the record. The archive does not serve a playable copy
of every title - a few have no dump at all, and the club will
not hand out a game from a publisher who is still selling it.
Those games still get a board. Play your own copy, on hardware
or your own emulator, photograph the score and send it
in. The board says "hardware only" so you know before you
start.
- Default settings. A record is set on the game as it
starts: skill 1 where the game has a skill select, no handicap,
nothing changed. A score played on any other setting is a
different contest and does not belong on the board - if the game
gives you a choice and you took a harder or easier one, say so
when you submit and the curator will tell you where it
stands.
- Play it however you like. On the emulator here in your
browser, on your own emulator, or on real hardware. None of
those is worth more than another. A hardware score photographed
off a CRT is as valid as anything else and always has been.
- Only your best counts. You appear on a board once, at
your highest approved score. Submitting a lower score than one
you already hold changes nothing - it is not rejected, it is
simply not your best - so there is no risk in sending in a run
you are unsure about.
- A screenshot or photograph is encouraged, not required -
except for a record. If your score would take first place on a
board, send a picture with it. The club is run on trust, but a
record is the one number everybody else is measured against, and
it should be one anybody can see.
- Scores are checked by a curator before they appear. That is
usually quick. Nothing goes on a board automatically.
- Rolled the counter? Say so. A rolled score reads low, so
the board would otherwise rank it beneath scores it beat.
Everybody who rolls shares first place.
- A score set during a round also counts toward that game's
all-time record, as long as
the round was played on the same settings. A record is a record,
wherever it was set - you will not be asked to play it twice.
The rules for the timed rounds.
A round is in play now - Mouse Trap on Skill 1, closing 9 Oct 2026.
Last updated 30 August 2026.
- On certain days a game or games will be announced and a topic will
be started for the round. Rounds run for one or two weeks and end
on Sundays, usually at 11 EST. Exceptions will be noted in the
topic for that round.
- More than one round can be open at the same time. A new
round often starts before the last one closes, so you never have
to stop playing one game to start the next. When that happens the
submission form tells you which round you are entering, and lists
the others so you can switch - your score only ever counts for the
round named on the form.
- To join the club, just enter a score. Use the
submission
form or post it in the round's thread - either reaches a
curator. You need a free SmartFORUM account to enter a score,
but not to play or to read the boards. A brand-new account's
first 2 posts are checked by a moderator before appearing - on the club and on the
forum alike. That is how the spam stays out, it lifts by itself
once those posts are approved, and it has no bearing on whether
your score counts.
- Only your best score in a round counts. Enter as often as
you like - a better one replaces your place on the board and a
lower one changes nothing, so there is never a reason not to
try again. Nothing you enter is deleted; the board simply shows
one line per player.
- Emulators are permitted, including
the one on this
site - most rounds can be played in your browser with
nothing to download. Please do not use the save/load feature of
any emulator to come back later and finish a game in progress.
High scores should be from a single playing session.
- Games played using the AtGames ColecoVision Flashback will not be
accepted - original hardware and emulation only. Using the
AtariMax multi-cart is acceptable.
- Pausing a game is acceptable for short periods, to allow for bio
breaks.
- Screenshots of your score are not necessary but are encouraged for
higher scores. For bonus points, HSC records, contests and
exceptional high scores for each round, they are required. If
you play in the browser here the screenshot is taken for you
when you submit, so there is nothing to photograph or upload.
- Post your scores in the thread for the actual game. Please create a
new post for each score - do not update an existing post with a new
score.
- Please do not cheat or abuse bugs and glitches in the games to your
advantage.
- Use the same skill level as posted, so that all scores are
comparable.
- Everyone who rolls a score will be tied for first place. Unless
noted in the thread you do not have to continue playing after you
roll a score, unless you choose to do so. Exceptions will be noted
in the topic for that round.
The scoring system encourages every player to try for their personal
best, because it is proportional. The player with the highest
score in a game takes first place and wins 100 points. Everyone
else is allocated points based on their score relative to the top
score. Points are rounded to the nearest integer.
| Place |
Score |
Points |
| 1 |
100,000 |
100 |
| 2 |
73,860 |
74 |
| 3 |
68,652 |
69 |
| 4 |
35,981 |
36 |
| 5 |
22,343 |
22 |
| 6 |
11,936 |
12 |
| 7 |
1,328 |
1 |
Ties
If a tie occurs for first place then both, or all, of the tied players
receive 100 points. Everyone else is allocated points relative to the
top score as usual.
A tie for any other position does not affect the scoring: the tied
players receive the same number of points, and nobody below them is
moved. So the only way a player's points can be reduced is if
the top score is increased.
This is what makes the system work for everybody. Exceptional players
can keep raising the top score, pushing everyone else's points down;
and a player lower in the ranking can always earn more points simply
by beating their own previous best.
Rounds are played on games the archive already holds a copy of - most
of the original ColecoVision library, and a great deal of the homebrew
that has since been released freely. Members put games forward on the
nomination page,
and the search there only offers games that qualify.
Games still being sold are not played
here. CollectorVision and Opcode Games continue to
make and sell their titles, and the club will not put one up as a
round. The archive lists them because they are part of the
ColecoVision record; that is a different thing from inviting a few
hundred people to press play on a copy. If you want one of those
games, buy it from the people who made it - they are still going, and
they earned it.
This is a rule about what the club chooses to offer rather than a
technical measure - anything a browser can run, a browser has a copy
of. It works because the club decides what to put up, not because
anything is locked.
Most rounds can be played in your browser on this site - nothing to
download and no account needed just to play. It is the same
ColecoVision emulation the museum's game pages use, running the
round's cartridge.
When you press Submit on the
submission form
after playing here, two things are recorded along with your score:
- A screenshot of the game screen, taken at that moment. It
saves you photographing a television, and it is what a curator
reads the number off.
- How long the emulator ran, as a frame count. It is a sanity
check and nothing more - a large score after a few seconds of
play is worth a second look. It is not proof of anything
and it never decides a score on its own.
Neither replaces a curator looking at your
submission, and neither is collected if you play on real hardware or
in your own emulator - in that case attach a photograph instead, or
just post the score in the round's thread. Playing on original
hardware is a first-class way to enter this club, not a second
choice.
The ColecoVision High Score Club is just for fun and bragging rights.
Please do not cheat, and do not abuse bugs or glitches in the
games to your advantage. If you are suspected of cheating in any way,
your score will be removed from the HSC.
If you have any questions or comments, send a PM to
RGDiRocco
on the
SmartFORUM and you will get a reply as soon as possible.
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